1. Field
Embodiments relate to an electric device for balancing power supply and demand by adjusting power consumption, a power management system including the electric device, and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of Information Technology (IT), the number of household appliances powered by electricity is rapidly increasing, in turn leading to increasing power consumption. In order to satisfy such increased power demand, the number of power plants is rapidly increasing. However, as can be seen from a power demand pattern, peak capacity is not reached during most days of the year, that is to say, power plants only operate at full capacity during a few days out of the year.
A state in which a high power demand is required for a short time is called peak load. During periods of peak load, electricity costs the most to generate and deliver, and therefore power providers raise the power rate charged to consumers during periods of peak load. Construction costs for adding an additional power plant to the grid are extremely high and maintenance costs for power plants constructed to maintain peak load for a short period are considerable.
Recently, numerous developers are conducting intensive research into a demand management method for temporarily restricting power consumption by limiting peak load without constructing such additional power plants. For the aforementioned purposes, demand management is a focus of attention, and a great deal of research is focused upon an advanced demand management format for demand response (DR).
DR is a system for intelligently managing energy consumption depending upon variation in power rates. For example, the consumer may temporarily stop an air-conditioner so as to reduce power consumption when power rates are high.
By means of the DR, a power-supply source can alter end user power consumption to achieve load balancing and can restrict end user power consumption to periods when demand is low, thereby reducing the user's overall energy expenditure.
Therefore, an electric device to which demand response (DR) is applied has been developed. The electric device receives real-time power rate information from the power-supply source or the power provider, and is turned on or off in response to the received power rate information.
Since the electric device is turned on or off according to the power rates, the electric device is unable to effectively perform functions desired by the user.